[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 33 (Wednesday, March 3, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H949]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             DISCRIMINATION CONTINUES AT AMERICA'S AIRPORTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bonior) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BONIOR. Mr. Speaker, let me just begin by echoing the comments of 
the gentlewoman from Houston, Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) and the gentleman 
from North Carolina (Mr. Watt) about a real giant in our history, Judge 
Higginbotham, who was a noted defender of civil rights; who went on to 
become one of the country's most prominent African American judges; and 
who, through his long and distinguished career, stood on the side of 
those who needed help.
  He, as we have heard, was awarded numerous awards, including the 
Medal of Freedom for his work and also the Wallenberg Humanitarian 
award.
  He was a giant, and he certainly will be missed, and I thank my 
colleagues for remembering him and bringing his spirit to light again 
so that the country can appreciate this remarkable man.

                              {time}  1730

  It is with that that I would like to make a transition to another 
issue, but the transition is easy because it is a civil rights issue, 
Mr. Speaker.
  In the Washington Post today, I read that five workers, all Muslim 
women, have filed a religious discrimination complaint with the Equal 
Employment Opportunity Commission. Apparently, according to this 
article, it was in the Metro section, I believe, of the Washington 
Post, they were fired from their jobs as screeners of passengers and 
luggage at Dulles International Airport because they refused to remove 
the head scarves they wear for religious reasons.
  Their employer, Argenbright Security, Incorporated, told them they 
would have to give up their head scarves or give up their jobs. Now, 
faced with such a choice, they chose to honor their religious 
commitment.
  As a result of the women's complaint to the EEOC, Argenbright 
Security is now backtracking. The company has issued a statement 
denying religious discrimination and inviting these five women to 
return to work.
  What this incident does, though, is raise a larger issue, and, that 
is, of the widespread and systematic discrimination against Muslims and 
Arab Americans at airports all across this country. Under current 
procedures, security companies like Argenbright are used to enforce 
profiling standards to ensure airport security.
  But you have to ask yourselves that if firms like Argenbright cannot 
even treat their Muslim employees fairly, how are we to believe they 
will treat Muslim passengers whom they do not even know in a fair and 
courteous manner?
  Now, we all understand that airport security is a must. But the 
people who are responsible for it should be trained in a way that 
ensures cultural sensitivity and fairness as they carry out these 
important responsibilities. This profiling issue is a huge 
embarrassment and problem, especially in the Detroit metropolitan 
airport. We have, as many of my colleagues may know, in the State of 
Michigan a large Arab-American and Muslim population, almost 700,000, 
close to 8 percent of our State.
  Because of the incidence of stopping these women and gentlemen as 
they come through the airport, I had a hearing at the airport, 
organized it, and I had Jane Garvey, the Director of the FAA, Federal 
Aviation Administration, come with her top people, and she heard 
stories from folks who told how they were stopped, denied passage 
because they fit a certain profile.
  One family, a good family, friends of mine, Dr. Basha and his family 
have been stopped on several occasions as they traveled on vacation to 
the Middle East. Another woman told of her son who was an Olympic rower 
going to a meet for a trial for the Olympics in Cincinnati and he was 
detained, missed the flight, missed the opportunity for the Olympics, 
because he fit a certain profile. We had another person who was a 
police officer in the Detroit area who was stopped and detained because 
he fit a profile.
  Now, let me say that this is not the first airport and this is not 
the first incident that led me to believe that airport security is 
being contracted out to companies who do not have a commitment to treat 
all Americans with fairness and dignity.
  I just want to applaud these five women for standing up for their 
religious beliefs and for their rights, for their rights on the job. I 
intend to contact the FAA about this situation and to insist that 
companies providing security at our airports do so without 
discriminating against Americans regardless of their religious faith or 
their ethnic heritage.

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